Amp volume, tone, and recording

[guitarrhino]

Depends on the gear. The amps I own nowadays (EC Vibro Champ, EC Twinolux, and a 65Amps Ventura) are mostly old-school designs, where the distortion/overdrive only occurs when the amp is pushed. For me, I have to record with the amps (EC Vibro Champ, EC Twinolux, and a 65Amps Ventura) running 60%-75% on the volume dial.

 

[benduncan]

I was bored today, so I recorded my amps at different volumes to see how it sounded.

I play the riff twice on each setting for about 10 seconds, first my Triple Rectifier:

https://soundcloud.com/benduncan/mesa-volume-test

Master:
1: As low as it will go
2: 9 o'clock
3: 10:30
4: 12 o'clock
5: 1:30

And the Pittbull

https://soundcloud.com/benduncan/vht-master-test

1: Master full, using channel vol as main volume
2: Channel volume full, using master as main volume, around the same db as the previous
3: Master at 3 o'clock, Channel vol at 9 o'clock
4: Same thing, reversed
5: The little thing at the end was with the master and ch vol at 12 o'clock, where I like it

 

[C1-ocaster]

I was bored today, so I recorded my amps at different volumes to see how it sounded.

I play the riff twice on each setting for about 10 seconds, first my Triple Rectifier:

https://soundcloud.com/benduncan/mesa-volume-test

Master:
1: As low as it will go
2: 9 o'clock
3: 10:30
4: 12 o'clock
5: 1:30

And the Pittbull

https://soundcloud.com/benduncan/vht-master-test

1: Master full, using channel vol as main volume
2: Channel volume full, using master as main volume, around the same db as the previous
3: Master at 3 o'clock, Channel vol at 9 o'clock
4: Same thing, reversed
5: The little thing at the end was with the master and ch vol at 12 o'clock, where I like it

Cool.
In the first one I liked the first two best. By the end it was sounding a bit rough in comparison.
Seems that amps tone is better while getting more tone from the pre's.
But that's to be expected from a very high gain amp like the triple.

VHT:
The 1st and 3rd sounded best.
The second one was muffled sounding and had a not so great distortion, and the 4th one not as good as 1 and 3. The distortion on the that also sounded overly distorted.
The last one was really good.

It makes a difference.

 

[benduncan]

The second one was muffled sounding and had a not so great distortion, and the 4th one not as good as 1 and 3. The distortion on the that also sounded overly distorted.

Yeah, my clip was a bit black and white, I should have changed more than just the volumes. I also should have had more in between the normal sound and the way overly distorted sound, or tried lowering the preamp gain on the more distorted parts. But I just did it on a whim, without really thinking to much about it, lol. And I have no idea how old the tubes in the Mesa are, the VHT's are about a year old.

I now know my limit, I'm never turning my rec past 1/2 o'clock, my house was about to collapse But the tone's not usable at that volume anyway, so I don't have to worry about that happening again

 

[C1-ocaster]

The second one was muffled sounding and had a not so great distortion, and the 4th one not as good as 1 and 3. The distortion on the that also sounded overly distorted.

Yeah, my clip was a bit black and white, I should have changed more than just the volumes. I also should have had more in between the normal sound and the way overly distorted sound, or tried lowering the preamp gain on the more distorted parts. But I just did it on a whim, without really thinking to much about it, lol. And I have no idea how old the tubes in the Mesa are, the VHT's are about a year old.

I now know my limit, I'm never turning my rec past 1/2 o'clock, my house was about to collapse But the tone's not usable at that volume anyway, so I don't have to worry about that happening again